Teva's overall revenue, however, fell short of Wall Street expectations. Teva said its recent efforts to restructure its drug distribution agreements in the U.S. and negative currency-exchange rates hurt revenue for the quarter.

The company also declined to update prior financial guidance for 2012, as new chief executive Jeremy Levin said he wanted to complete a business-performance review first.

Israel-based Teva is a company in transition. It's the world's biggest maker of generic drugs by sales, but it has expanded its footprint in the market for branded, proprietary drugs, including its October 2011 purchase of Cephalon for $6.5 billion.

In addition, Levin, a former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
BMY, -0.41%
executive, took over as Teva's chief executive Wednesday, replacing Shlomo Yanai in a move announced in January.

On a conference call with analysts, Levin said he expects to unveil a strategy for Teva's future later this year. He said he hopes to build on Teva's past achievements and capitalize on new opportunities.

Levin said until he completes a business review, "we'll not be addressing our guidance" for 2012. Teva had previously predicted adjusted full-year earnings of $5.48 to $5.68 per share, excluding various items.

For the first quarter, Teva's profit rose to $859 million, or 97 cents a share, from $761 million, or 84 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding amortization of purchased intangible assets and other items in both periods, earnings rose to $1.47 per share from $1.04 a share a year earlier, exceeding the $1.44-per-share mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Teva sales rose 25% to $5.1 billion from $4.1 billion a year earlier, falling short of the $5.5 billion Thomson estimate. Teva said the renegotiated distribution agreements cut branded-drug revenue by about $180 million for the quarter.

Net revenues in the U.S. were $2.8 billion in this year's first quarter, representing 54% of total revenues and a 46% rise from the first quarter of 2011.

Teva attributed the U.S. gain to the launch of seven new generic products that weren't sold a year earlier, and a rise in branded drug sales primarily due to the inclusion of Cephalon.

Net revenues in Europe were $1.3 billion--representing 26% of total revenues--down 2% compared to the first quarter of last year. Teva said generic-drug sales declined in Europe due to macro-economic weakness and health-care reforms in key markets.

Net revenues in the rest of the world, which includes Canada, Israel, certain markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, totaled $1 billion, or representing 20% of total revenues, up 21% on the same year-ago period.

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